Law, Ethics and News Literacy
A well-rounded, professional journalist needs to have extensive knowledge of journalistic ethics, and spread news literacy in their community. I have come across a few instances in my time with the newspaper where I have had to revisit my knowledge of ethics, and I have tried my best to educate others on news literacy to the best of my ability.
Letter to the Editor: Black History Month at MIHS
This article, by current junior Jada Hughes, is a direct letter to the editor in MIHS' lack of action on Black History Month in the 2020-2021 school year.
Spreading News Literacy Through Journalism Club
As the president of Journalism Club, I taught club members about journalistic ethics and encouraged each of them to practice honest, good journalism. Below are a few articles that were published under my leadership as club president that demonstrate a thorough knowledge of news literacy:
MI City Council to Homeless: “Find Another Place to Live”
This article was written by current junior Anna Bertlin on a city ordinance that banned anyone from camping on Mercer Island.
Guest Writer disclaimer:
When any club member writes an article, we provide a paragraph encouraging more students to get involved in journalism. For example:
Anna Bertlin contributed to this article as a Guest Writer for The MIHS Islander. The MIHS Islander accepts guest submissions and encourages any students interested in writing for our online and print editions to join the “MIHS Journalism Club” Facebook group.
“Toward Inclusive Community” Webinar Examines Mercer Island’s Racist Past
I wrote this article after attending a community webinar on the history of redlining on Mercer Island. This article is an example of how I have used my voice to educate the community in a meaningful way.
University of Washington Student Sophia Dowling Educates the Mercer Island Community on redlining.
Photo by Alex Levin
The MIHS Black Student Union (BSU) sponsored a Zoom webinar titled “Toward Inclusive Community” on Wednesday, Feb. 2.
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Hosted by ONE MI and Do the Work MI, the event featured various speakers who discussed the history of redlining and racial covenants on Mercer Island and how residents can make neighborhoods more inclusive.
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“[The webinar] covered a lot of Seattle history of segregation, racial covenants and redlining neighborhoods, and I think that was important information to spread to the viewers of the webinar, especially those who aren’t familiar with this issue,” BSU public relations coordinator Brooks Kahsai said. “There was a big focus on the covenants restricting Black residents to very specific areas of Seattle in the mid-late 1900s, primarily the Central District.”
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The webinar started off with a presentation from University of Washington students Sophia Dowling, Jazzlyn Woods and Nicholas Boren, who are all a part of the UW Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.
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Dowling, Woods and Boren talked about their research on redlining and real-estate discriminatory restrictions in the Seattle area.
The presentation then transitioned to Monty Smith and Chase Pennington, both representatives of real estate company John L. Scott.
Smith and Pennington discussed a website that is not yet open to the public, but once published will allow homeowners to check if there are any restrictive covenants on their property, and how to make modifications if there are.
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However, while these speakers were highly informative, the webinar was far from perfect. BSU members did not have a chance to speak during the presentation, and as a result the webinar lacked young, minority voices.
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“BSU had a cameo for the meeting from our vice president as planned, but there weren’t any other panelists representing equity groups from MIHS or neighboring high schools. Also, I think more time could’ve been directed toward discussing today’s issues with racial inclusivity and how we can improve for the future,” Kahsai said.
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“Six of the seven panelists were white, and considering the nature of this discussion, this would have been a great opportunity to have more diversity. Regardless, I found the discussion to be very informative and a step in the right direction for sure.”
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MIHS students should be on the lookout for more BSU events about redlining in the near future. Also, anyone wanting to get more involved with the content discussed in the webinar can visit https://depts.washington.edu/covenants.
Law and Ethics
I learned about journalistic law and ethics during my freshman year, and I have always found them fascinating. There have been a few times in the past four years where my fellow journalists and I have needed to use our knowledge of law and ethics and make decisions:
Kavanaugh Undergoes Grueling Confirmation:
This article was written by one of my fellow staff writers Jeff Parkinson. The piece satirically compared Brett Kavanaugh's history in fraternities to the party culture at MIHS. The piece was met with severe backlash from students who participate in fraternity-like activities at MIHS since they felt the article unfairly associated them with Kavanaugh's history of sexual assault allegations. We were also met with demands from parents to take down the article from our website.
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However, while we wrote a correction at the top of the article clarifying that the story had nothing to do with Kavanaugh's alleged wrongdoings, because the article did not cause material and substantial harm or carry an intent to hurt any student, we had no reason to take the article down.
"Finley the Therapy Dog is Racist"
Our former humor columnist Spencer Klein wrote an article for a previous April Fools issue about how our school's therapy dog, Finley, is racist. While this article was meant to be a joke, Spencer did not ask Finley's handler for permission to write about Finley before publishing the article, which violates many of our newspaper's honest journalistic principles. As a result, Spencer was forced to write an apology letter, and the article is no longer published on our website.